Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/122

 98

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL JAN. 30, 1909.

is borne out by the woodcut on the title- page or cover of Mr. Howell's copy, where the serpent is in the form of a railway train, the engine forming a terrible head to the monster, and at p. 19 of the Lambert copy is a tail- piece of a train and engine. Furthermore, in the copy in ' The Kentish Note-Book ' an expression in the letter to the Mayor of Dover bears this out :

For heere is coom'd a Sarpent fearse, That spats out flames and sinders,

And if whee can-knot barn him up, He will barn us too [sic] tinder.

The local guides to Folkestone do not help, nor the South-Eastern Railway guides, because when the foolish opposition had been conquered it was advisable for both parties to bury the hatchet. No doubt, on its first publication, the allusions were all well understood in the locality. I have many anecdotes about the opposition to the line in other parts, though not to Folke- stone ; but I think this is the foundation for the skit. A. RHODES.

AERIAL NAVIGATION (10 S. xi. 8). The following paragraph, taken from a Liverpool newspaper dated January, 1790, seems to be a very circumstantial account of a flying machine almost equal to anything yet pro- duced, and, taken in conjunction with MR. SIMONSON'S engraving, appears to point to the fact that our forefathers were much more advanced in the art of aerial naviga- tion than we have hitherto given them credit for. The extract is in the form of a letter from a gentleman near Wooller in Northumberland, where the trial is said to have taken place :

" Some time back, a gentleman, Mr. Assgill, at Byle Common, near Wooler, conceived it might be possible to conduct the air balloon in any direction, but the possibility of doing it by means of sails he some time since gave up ; he next attempted to do it by means of wings ; this method also failed. He then, by conceiving the air as a fluid, and remarking the method of fish swimming against a current of water, which he obtained for that purpose, has now constructed one exactly in form of a fish, in which I yesterday saw him ascend, himself being situated in the centre of gravity : his internal machinery, which gives motion to the wings and sails and like- wise [sic] of removing himself, to give different atti- tudes to the fish, are by me considered as the most ingenious piece of machinery I ever saw ; when I arrived it was just filled with gas, and the day being quite calm, he soon situated himself, and everything being immediately adjusted, he rose easily ; but to see the enormous monster stretch along the air, lash his tail, skim in different directions, with all the appearance of nature, was truly admirable, and 1 think will be considered as the finest exhibition in the world. After floating near half an hour, and displaying his power of managing it at will, in

which time he never rose more than 150 yards high, oft skimming just the surface, he found some- derangements in the machine, and stopped exactly in the place from whence he ascended.

A. H. ARKLE. Elmhurst, Oxton, Birkenhead.

MRS. OLIPHANT'S ' NEIGHBOURS ON THE GREEN' (10 S. xi. 27). There was resident on Englefield Green a very eccentric, slightly masculine spinster called Miss Gertrude Seymour. She died circa 1890, and might well have served to illustrate Mrs. Oliphant's book. G. W. E. R.

SEAQUAKE AND EARTHQUAKE (10 S. xi. 44). The word maremoto is given in the Italian dictionary ' II Nuovissimo Melzi,' and there defined as " moto impetuoso del mare causato dal terremoto."

F. HOWARD COLLINS.

"COMETHER" (10 S. x. 469; xi. 33). " Comether " as a verb is quite common in the north-east of Scotland. I have often heard a farm labourer, sitting on the left side of his cart, say to his horse, when he- wished it to turn to the left, " Comether." From such a use of the verb, the meaning of the substantive readily follows. In Scots dialect many of the nouns have the same form as the verbs with which they are con- nected. ALEX. WARRACK.


 * ' IT IS THE MASS THAT MATTERS " (10 S.

x. 470). I think that M. N. probably refers to the story which is commonly told to explain the curious sign of a public-house opposite the entrance to Kensal Green Cemetery, and known as " The Case is Altered."

The story is as follows. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when it was an indictable offence to practise the rites of the Roman Catholic religion, Edmund Plowden, an eminent common lawyer, who was of this persuasion, fell into a trap which had been laid for him by his enemies, by attending a disused chapel where a sham priest officiated at the Mass. In his defence Plowden commenced by denying that he had ever been near the place, but, eliciting in cross- examination that the priest was a layman in disguise, he turned to the jury and exclaimed,. " Why, then, gentlemen, the case is altered : no priest, no Mass." This witty plea, which procured him his release, subsequently became a popular catch-phrase. Plowden' s bust still adorns the Middle Temple Hall. ALAN STEWART.